EVERY regional in the US is hiring guys with less than 500 hrs TT. NO ONE has to be a flight instructor, unless you want to. And, if you want to, you can make $40K+ as a flight instructor for the Ab-Initio schools out west.
Not every regional is hiring with less then 500, skw, express jet, horizon to name a few.
The airline I fly for hired 2 guys with less than 400 hours Total Time. Starting pay is $34K. I was hired at about 2000 TT. 5 year captain pay is $92/hour. My buddy has worked here about 7-8 years, and he has over $150K in his retirement account. Another guy just left us for Emirates. He was offered DEC on the -777.
A buddy of mine went to Kalitta (747s-requiring 4000 TT) and made over $100K as an FO.
There is no way he made over 100k at kalitta unless he is an extremely sr guy (they start out at first year$57, 64, 74, 77/hr)